Heart Like a Machine

Chapter 89

"I got a message from your mother!" I said, about to get on the Sunwing.

"So did I!" Lis said.

We both walked over to one another, opening up the message to see it was a bunch of zeroes and ones.

"What the hell?" Lis asked. "Did mom just spam us with something?"

"That's not just random zeroes and ones, it's binary," I said. "She didn't want Londra to figure out the message so she sent it in binary! She's a smart one," I grabbed a stick and walked over to the sand.

"Can you decode it?"

"With time, yes," I said and started to read through it.

"How long are we going to sit here?"

"Lis, open up the message and scroll all the way down. There are coordinates she sent."

She tapped her Focus and scrolled down. She grabbed another stick and wrote the coordinates in the sand while I was decoding her message. It took much shorter than I thought it was going to take.

"What did she send?" Lis asked, standing up from the sand.

"She said, 'Im ok. Londra and his goons. Putting me through hell. Dont worry. Im strong. Coordinates to me.'"

"Wow," Lis said, looking at the coordinates.

I tapped my Focus once more and found the exact coordinates to where she was. She was in a volcano somewhere southeast of Fleet's End.

"We need to tell Seyka," I said about to get on the Sunwing.

"Wait, aren't we going over to where the Hollywood sign is?" Lis asked. 

I let out a sigh, "That's right. We do need to get some answers on what Londra is doing."

"Come on," Lis said and got onto her Sunwing. "The faster we figure out what he's doing, the faster we can get to mother."

She flew into the air and towards our next meeting point with Seyka. I got onto my Sunwing and flew upwards, heading towards Fleet's End.

"Hold on, Y/N. We're coming."

My one eye slowly opened up and scanned my surroundings. Everything was the same, but it was all dark and the only light I had was the one coming from my Focus. My armor was off and was lying next to me. Listening to my surroundings, I could hear some Quen guards talking to one another about wanting to fight someone or something. I chuckled to myself, but the pain in my side prevented me from laughing too long. I could definitely tell something was broken there as that was the major point of torture. Either it was by Londra himself or the Quen guards, they always went right for the ribs. I guess if it punctured my lungs badly, I'd be dead within a matter of minutes. 

The door opened up and I tried to focus on who was entering. It was Aloy? How did she get to me this fast? Slowly getting up, I had to use the wall for leverage. Dragging my hand across the wall, my other hand held onto my side as whenever I took even one step, massive amounts of pain would surge through the brusied area and all over my left side.

"A-Aloy?" I whispered, trying to rush towards her.

She turned to face me, rushing towards me.

I fell to the ground and she caught me, carefully lowering me to the ground.

"Y/N?" she whispered. "Y-You're alive?"

"Y-Yes. I'm alive. I am trying to hold on for you and Lis. I am doing my absolute best to be patient. B-But how did you get here so fast?"

"No time for that. We need to get you out of here."

"Is Lis safe? Is she ok?"

"She's fine, but we won't be if Londra finds us."

As we were making our way out of the volcano, something smashed in from the ceiling. It had a large red eye and there were tentacles in the air.

"There you are!" Londra's voice came from its eye.

"Oh no," I whispered.

"A Horus," Aloy whispered.

"G-Get out of here, Aloy. H-He's after you," I could feel my entire body failing me. Everything was in pain and no matter what I tried to tell it to do, it wouldn't follow my commands.

"Not without you. I came here to save you, so I am going to bring you back home."

"No, Aloy, j-just go," I fell to the ground, my legs being too weak to stand up. "He's after you. Run, please. I-I can hold him off."

"Not in this condition," she knelt beside me. 

"Please, Aloy," I looked into her hazel eyes one last time. "Go home and protect Lis."

She sighed and shook her head. Standing up, she rushed out of the volcano. Using what little strength I had, I slowly got to my feet and pulled out my bow.

"You shouldn't have done that. Now you're going to fight alone and no one is going to come and save you!" Londra said.

"I don't care," I said, loading my bow up. "As long as they live, that's all that matters!"

"What about you? Are you just going to die?"

"If that's what it takes to keep my loved ones safe, then so be it!" I shot at the eye, even though it wasn't going to do anything.

The tentacles came towards me and I tried to dodge them, but one smacked into me, causing me to hit the ground hard. I let out a yell as pain ran along my entire left side. Slow to get up, I loaded my bow once more, waiting for the tentacle to come after me.

"Hey!" I heard Aloy as she threw one of her spikes at it. "Over here!"

"Aloy, no!"

She loaded her bow and turned to face me, her head nodding slowly.

"No, Aloy. Don't do this," I said, tears forming in my eyes.

"It was good while it lasted, Y/N," she said as she charged towards the Horus. 

"NO!" I yelled, trying to get up, but all the pain in my body refused to let me. 

One of the tentacles smacked into Aloy, causing her to fly across the room and hit a wall. A second arm opened up and pinned her to the wall while the others started to surround her.

"No, please, Londra!"

"Any last words?" Londra asked Aloy.

Aloy struggled in the grasp of the Horus, trying to form words. As I finally stood up, she turned my way and smiled, mouthing the words 'I love you' as lasers came out from the arms of the Horus.

"ALOY!" I yelled, watching her be there a few moments ago to being gone with the wind.

"So that's her name."

My eyes ripped open and I was panting, looking up to see Londra and Nova above me.

"I finally have her name. And this Lis person."

"Don't you dare think about doing anything to them!" I hissed through bared teeth.

"It's not this Lis I am after. It's Aloy I am after. Nova, continue the MSP."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Walter? Too much of this could harm her cognitive--"

"I don't care what it does to her. And lower your empathy down 20%."

"Yes, Walter," Nova said.

"Now, continue."

"Yes, Walter."

Londra walked out of the room and I was now face to face with Nova.

"I'm sorry," was all she said.